Sustained security cannot be built through coercion and fear, Ramos-Horta said on Saturday, warning that if the most vulnerable people in the country suffer harm, confidence in the international laws and institutions designed to prevent and resolve wars would be eroded.
“When rules appear to protect some and not others, small states begin to wonder whether the language of order is really only the language of power,” he said.
Drawing on his country’s own experience, Ramos-Horta said that Timor-Leste’s independence was built through “years of patient and practical diplomacy” involving multiple actors, including the UN and Indonesia, which “gradually turned all wounds into new bonds”.
“History must not imprison nations,” he said in his 15-minute address.
“Wise leadership and dialogue can turn conflict into coexistence, coexistence into friendship and trust.”
He added that ASEAN offers a “good example”, having emerged from a region marked by colonial scars, wars among Indochina countries and past Cold War rivalries, rather than a “tranquil epoch”.
Both the experiences of Timor-Leste and ASEAN, Ramos-Horta said, hold key lessons for “patient, practical and effective diplomacy”.
“ASEAN’s achievement in this respect is not that it made all countries seem alike. It has not erased differences … it created habits of cooperation despite those differences,” said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Ramos-Horta highlighted ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation which affirmed principles which he said “sound simple but were revolutionary when practised”.
Core principles in the legally-binding treaty on inter-state relations include mutual respect for the independence and sovereignty of all nations, settlement of disputes by peaceful means and a renunciation of threats or the use of force.
“The resulting trust between ASEAN nations has delivered vast mutual benefits,” he said.
